Seahawks: Readers weigh in on 49ers, game, 12th Man

Our space for letters to the sports editor and Take 2 simply couldn’t handle all the submissions on the Seahawks over the past week, so I’m rounding up some of the best into a bonus Take 2 post.

Send 49ers packing,

on to Super Bowl

The national media’s concern about the Seahawks offense makes for good headlines. It also displays a misunderstanding of the style of this team. The Seahawks are blue collar and competitive. They are built to win close games in terrible weather with defense, special teams, or offense.

Offensive production is only one facet of the game of football. Other teams like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, the 2002 Tampa Buccaneers, and the 2005 and 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers all won Super Bowls with top-ranked defenses and without top-ranked offenses.

The Super Bowl is going to be played in New Jersey this year, not in sunny Florida or the comfort of a dome. The last five weeks have me looking forward to the potential challenge of Tom Brady or Peyton Manning in miserable weather conditions. First, we need to send our Bay-area neighbors home for their winter vacation.

- James Windle, Snoqualmie

Nothing will come

easy this season

I think it’s fair to say that if this weekend’s NFC Championship Game was to be played a day later than Sunday, the waiting could prove to be too much for some Seahawk fans, many of whom might spontaneously combust, so eager is the anticipation for Sunday’s game with the San Francisco 49ers.

Home-field advantage was to have made Sunday’s game a coronation.

Instead, it could serve as a beheading.

As kickoff nears, those not blinded by 12th Man Fever have to view Sunday’s foe as formidable, battle-tested, and more than capable of dashing the dreams of every fan in Washington and bordering Northwest states, as well as several Canadian provinces.

Home-field advantage throughout the playoffs was supposed to provide a golden ticket to the Super Bowl.

Such was the case with the 2005 Seahawks, who sliced and diced their way past the despicably nicknamed team from our nation’s capitol, and the badly overmatched Carolina Panthers, before being derailed by the Pittsburgh Steelers (and Bill Leavy and his Merry-Men-in-Stripes).

Nothing promises to be easy this time around, though.

- Frank Workman, Lake Forest Park

Ode to the 12th Man

from a 12th Man

I am the 12th man

I am self-reliant and…

I am part of the team

I complete the cycle

I make us whole

We are the perfect unit

I am alert

Watching every move

I strive for perfection

I am strong

When I breathe

My breath becomes wind

Wind beneath the wings

Of the Seahawks

Soaring to the Super Bowl

And as we rise

The earth trembles

Beneath us

– Steve Marsh, Seattle

A smarter brand

of football born here

I truly do not believe that the Seahawks and the No. 12 has anything against any other team or fans in the NFL. It is just that we know it is our time and we are crazy excited about it because it feels special. The Saints and the 49ers are just in our way … it’s not personal.

The current Hawks are an original cast in the mold of the new dispensation of the NFL. They were built here. It does not surprise us in Seattle that the current club is so innovative and diverse in their wins. Just look at the many innovators that have risen out of the great Northwest – Boeing, Microsoft (Paul Allen), Starbucks, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, and now Macklemore, and on and on. That is what we do up here.

When Holmgren was here, he tried to transplant the old style NFL into the Northwest, it did not take root because it wasn’t our brand. It wasn’t a NW product. It wasn’t who we were, it was what the NFL still is today, except here.

Carroll on the other hand, is an innovator in the ‘new’ NFL (a product of the West Coast) with a core of young players that are new to the NFL. Carroll embraced Seattle and all we stood for when he arrived and built the new Hawks from up here. That is why it is so different this time. So much more electric and vibrant originality. The vibe is so thick, that you can feel it in the air this time. It is truly different up here than in any other NFL city in the nation right now. It seems to be like a reactive centrifugal force that has enveloped the entire conscience of the city; it is almost spiritual. It is like something never before seen, is being born.

It’s a smarter brand of football. All indications say that the Seahawks should go – all – the – way this year. No offense to any other team, fan base or market, but it just looks like it is OUR year.

- Roger Wood, Seattle

Crossing the

sportsmanship line

As with most Seattleites, I have caught Seahawk fever. However the decision by the Hawks management to prohibit ticket sales to the Hawks-Niners game to anyone with a California billing address is unconscionable.

I have never bought into the concept that football games should be won by audience participation. Sporting contests should be decided by the skill of the players on the field.

By denying San Francisco fans access to their conference playoff and by therefor supercharging the decibel level in CenturyLink Field, Seahawk management has crossed the line into unsportsmanlike conduct. This is bad Juju Karma for our team.

- Tony Haftel, Gig Harbor

Show more class

than Harbaugh

When our Seahawks thrash the 49ers’ in the NFC playoffs, fans in the CLink have a chance to make their ownstatement. Aggressive attacks, superior execution, and better coaching is how our team will win. That’s our team’s job.

Record- and concentration-breaking decibel levels when 49ers are on offense, insane applause for every brilliant Seahawk play, and (relative) quiet during Russell Wilson snap counts, is how the fans can show the team their support. That’s the fans’ job.

People who use the game as an excuse to get drunk, assault other fans, or verbally berate adults and children are NOT worthy fans. Our Hawks have earned our respect, and deserve better!

Let’s show everyone in the stadium, as well as the national TV audience that has long ignored the Pacific Northwest, that ANY of our fans has more class than Jim Harbaugh. Admittedly, a pretty low bar.

- Joel Selling, Monroe

Make Bradhaw eat

crow after game

Could we (the 12th man) please challenge Terry Bradshaw to put on that “damn bird uniform,” that he referred to over 35 years ago!

As a long time (female) football and Seahawks fan, I still remember that remark he made on aational TV. Our star running back and rookie of the year Curt Warner had gone down our first game of the season.

It was a serious knee injury. The fans spirits were low after the injury, so Franco Harris came out of retirement and kept our spirits high for the season. The first game for the Seahawks when Franco took the field in the old Kingdome, Bradshaw made the comment about ending up in “that bird uniform.”

Bradshaw has always hated the Seahawks. Before last Saturday’s NFL games, every commentator on the pregame show had Seattle as their top choice – everyone but Bradshaw. I dislike him as much as he dislikes the Seahawks. I am very protective of my husband, my children, my grandchildren, and my football team!

I challenge Bradshaw to put on “that damn bird uniform,” after we beat San Francisco on Sunday night. Then we’ll see him eat crow while wearing that uniform.

- Janice Perey, Seattle

Want to be a reader contributor to The Seattle Times’ Take 2 blog? Email your original, previously unpublished work or proposal to Sports Editor Don Shelton at dshelton@seattletimes.com or sports@seattletimes.com. Not all submissions can be published. The Times reserves the right to edit and publish any submissions online and/or in print.

Have something to say?

Want to be a reader contributor to The Seattle Times’ Take 2 blog? Email your original, previously unpublished work or proposal to Sports Editor Don Shelton at dshelton@seattletimes.com or sports@seattletimes.com. Not all submissions can be published. The Times reserves the right to edit and publish any submissions online and/or in print.